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Doctors should take a lead in explaining to patients why major changes are needed to the health service in England to make it truly modern and sustainable, the head of the body that represents NHS organisations has said.

Those changes included the closure of some hospital units, not necessarily to save money but to improve the quality of care by concentrating specialist services in fewer centres, said Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, the membership body for organisations that provide or commission NHS services. Another major change was to boost primary, community, and social services to enable more people to be treated at or …

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